Hello everyone,

I wanted to share an exciting opportunity that I think might align with our ongoing discussions about learner engagement and social presence in online learning. The main reason I am a member of this group is because I am deeply passionate about finding innovative ways to connect with students and create dynamic online learning environments.

I am also a member of the AECT Association of Educational Communication and Technology -  Learner Engagement Division. We were all sharing resources for learner engagement at our meeting today and I ambassador(ed) our Social Presence Lab portal and invited participants to our monthly workshop series.

We were exploring how we can apply learning engineering frameworks to course design. Learning engineering, in essence, is about taking a systematic, data-driven approach to designing and optimizing learning experiences and it is about applying rigorous methods to understand how learners learn, and then using that knowledge to create more effective and engaging instruction. I could not help thinking about the application of engineering frameworks to social presence development strategies. We discussed the cognitive capabilities of the brain in multi-tasking, and considered theories about whether the brain was really able to do more than one task at a time.

One attendee asked for advice about facilitating face-to-face instruction with adult learners who appeared to be constantly checking their mobile devices. With a great concern that they would not be able to absorb all of the information at once, there were suggestions for how to bring them back to the learning environment. One recommendation was for them to employ a mobile learning app, like Padlet or Poll Everywhere, to get immediate feedback from the learners in hopes of rekindling their interest and directing their attention on the lesson at hand (using the mobile device in their hand).

The person that brought up the potential for engineering frameworks for learner engagement shared this workshop that I thought might prove to be useful for members of our discussion group. It is hosted by ICICLE International Consortium for Innovation and Collaboration in Learning Engineering which is a division of the IEEE standards association. The workshop is entitled "Application of Learning Engineering Across Post-Secondary Contexts," and will be held on Wednesday, March 26th, 2025 at 1 pm ET/10 am PT. The session will provide an overview of learning engineering, share use cases on its application in higher education, and offer a chance to ask questions and discuss ideas.  https://sagroups.ieee.org/icicle/

I think this workshop could offer some fresh perspectives and ideas in how to use engineering principles to enhance social presence when designing online courses. It occurred to me that using data-driven insights to tailor interactions, personalize feedback, and perhaps to design collaborative activities might be an effective way to gauge and measure connected learning strategies.

The Learning Engagement Division of AECT also offers the Learner Engagement Activated Podcast with Anne Fensie that is another great resource for ideas in how to promote social presence in our online learning environments.

https://learnerengagement.podbean.com/

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing more ideas and resources to help our learners connect, build competencies, and succeed!